By Rich Bockmann
With all of the budget requests in for the skate park he wants to build in Laurelton, southeast Queens activist Greg Mays is not sitting still
Just don’t expect to see him on a board anytime soon.
“Bad knees!” Mays, 50, explained over the weekend as he was collecting signatures and drumming up support for the $3 million park he would like to see built at the Laurelton Playground.
With a copy of the Journal of Adolescent Research tucked underneath his arm, Mays, chairman of the Community Board 12 Parks Committee, beat the drum during what he hopes to be the final stretch of a project that has been a passion of his for some time.
“About 10 or 15 years ago I got a call that my nephew was at the precinct. He was skating somewhere over there on Merrick [Boulevard],” he said, adding that conditions for young skaters have not gotten much better since then.
“Look, they’re jumping over trash cans,” he said pointing to a handful of extreme sport enthusiasts who were making due with a waste basket. “That’s not right.”
In his pitch to get local leaders to open the purse strings, Mays noted that the borough’s most recently opened skate park in Woodhaven enjoyed plentiful financial support a few years ago from City Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park) and then-Borough President Helen Marshall.
To build his Laurelton facility, which is more than 6 miles away from Woodhaven’s London Planetree park, Mays submitted budget requests to southeast Queens’ three councilmen and the new borough president and nearly 140 people had signed onto the change.org petition asking the officials to free up funding.
“I encountered a group of children in a local store parking lot they were using for skateboarding,” Ayanna Cole, of Jamaica, wrote on the site. “The young people told me the nearest skate park is too far away for them to get to so they skate in a busy store parking lot. We find so much money to punish them when they get into trouble, here they are seeking funds to support a positive outdoor activity. How could we not support it?”
A group of young skaters who were enjoying the free pizza at the playground Saturday said they prefer to ride to the Far Rockaway skate park because of its authentic design.
“It’s set up realistically,” said 20-year-old Jamal Jones who, when not making the trip to the Rockaways from his home in Rosedale, skates on park benches, which he said is not exactly ideal.
When Mays first approached him about the project, Jones said he was a bit skeptical but now he is on board.
“I didn’t take him seriously,” he said, “but I think it’s pretty cool that, you know, an adult would want to do something like that.”
Mays said he recently got an unsolicited text message from the foundation established by world-famous skater Tony Hawk to help build parks in low-income communities — an unexpected surprise he his hoping will give his park that extra push.
“Private donations are always welcome,” he said.
Reach reporter Rich Bockmann by e-mail at rbockmann@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
